Maurer Productions OnStage presents “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee"

Final Weekend June 14,15,16

View the Promo video!

 

About the Show An eclectic group of students are set to compete in the spelling bee of their young lives. Maurer Productions OnStage presents the comical and endearing “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,”  complete with audience participation, at Mercer County Community College’s Kelsey Theatre. Fridays, June 7 & 14, 2019 at 8pm Saturdays, June 8 & 15 at 8pm Sundays, June 9 & 16 at 2pm A reception with the cast and crew follows the opening night performance on June 7th. Six spellers bravely enter the competition with hopes of winning the ultimate prize – a trip to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. Intent on avoiding the soul-crushing “ding” of the bell signaling a spelling mistake, they pour out their hearts, revealing touching and hilarious stories from their tween vantage point. It’s a show that anyone who’s ever been a kid can relate to – where even the losers get a juice box! The cast features Quinton Barker of Columbus as Leaf Coneybear; Dana Joy Carducci of Newtown, Pa., as Olive Ostrovsky; Jack Cavanaugh-Gialloreto of Robbinsville as William Barfee; Cindy Sherbin Chait of West Windsor as Rona Lisa Peretti; Julie Freeman of East Windsor as Logan Schwartzandgrubenierre; Arielle Rabano of Plainsboro as Marcy Park; Tim ReRucha of Hamilton as Vice Principal Douglas Panch; Rob Veith of Philadelphia, Pa., as Chip Tolentino; and Shan Williams of Trenton as Mitch Mahoney. The show is co-produced and co-directed by Diana Gilman Maurer and John M. Maurer. Other members of the production team are Musical Director Peter de Mets, Choreographer Jane Coult, Master Carpenter Jeff Cantor, Lighting Designer Judi Parrish, Sound Engineer Evan Paine, Costume Designer Anthony Remer, and Stage Manager Melissa Gaynor. Tickets are $20 for adults $18 for seniors $16 for students/children/vets & alumni. They may be purchased online at  www.kelseytheatre.net or by calling the Kelsey Box Office at 609-570-3333 Kelsey Theatre is wheelchair accessible with free parking next to the theater.

NJSO 2019 Summer Park Concerts

2019 Summer Park Concerts | June 21–30

Upcoming: Join us in Mountainside and Madison. Celebrate the diversity of the Americas with the NJSO this summer! Explore the continents with concert, theater and dance music from Leonard Bernstein, José Pablo Moncayo, Astor Piazzolla, Florence Price, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin. Hear hits from West Side Story and Porgy and Bess, travel to Mexico with Arturo Márquez’s Conga del Fuego Nuevo and experience patriotic favorites along with Copland’s classic “Hoe-Down” from Rodeo.

More Info & Updates

FREE CONCERTS: June 21 | 7:30 pm | NJSO At Echo Lake Park | Mountainside June 24 | 7:30 pm | NJSO at Maxwell Place Park | Hoboken June 25 | 8 pm | NJSO at Ocean County College | Toms River June 28 | 7:30 pm | NJSO at Branch Brook Park | Newark June 30 | 8 pm | NJSO at Marine Park | Red Bank TICKETED CONCERT:June 23 | 6 pm | NJSO at Giralda 2019 Music and Arts Festival | Giralda Farms in Madison

The June 21 concert at Echo Lake Park is sponsored by the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the Westfield Foundation and the Blanche M. and George L. Watts Mountainside Community Foundation | The June 23 concert at Giralda Farms is presented by Morris Arts | The June 24 concert at Maxwell Place Park is presented by the City of Hoboken | The June 25 concert at Ocean County College is sponsored by JCP&L/FirstEnergy Foundation and PNC Bank, in partnership with Ocean County College. | The June 28 concert at Branch Brook Park is sponsored by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and the County of Essex; part of the 2019 Essex County Free Summer Music Series | The June 30 concert at Marine Park is presented by Red Bank River Center.

Discover dynamic new works by the NJSO Edward T. Cone Composition Institute composers and Institute Director Steven Mackey on July 20 in Princeton.   Info & Tickets

CENTENARY STAGE COMPANY SUMMER MUSICAL THEATRE SERIES OPENER: NUNSENSE

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 Centenary Stage Company’s Summer Musical Theatre Series kicks off with Dan Goggin’s hilarious musical comedy Nunsense July 11 through July 21 in the Lackland Performing Arts Center. Individual performances run Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Fridays at 8:00 pm, Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm. Tickets range from $18.00 to $30.00 with discounts available for students and children under 12. Tickets are available on line at centenarystageco.org or by phone at (908) 979 – 0900.

With book, music and lyrics by Dan Goggin, Nunsense begins when the Little Sisters of Hoboken discover that their cook, Sister Julia, Child of God, has accidentally poisoned 52 of the sisters forcing the surviving sisters to raise funds for the burials. The sisters decide that the best way to raise the money is to put on a variety show and take over the school auditorium, which is currently set up for the eighth grade production of “Grease”.  Here we meet Reverend Mother Regina, a former circus performer; Sister Mary Hubert, the Mistress of Novices; a streetwise nun from Brooklyn named Sister Robert Anne; Sister Mary Leo, a novice who is a wannabe ballerina; and the delightfully wacky Sister Mary Amnesia, the nun who lost her memory when a crucifix fell on her head. Featuring star turns, tap and ballet dancing, an audience quiz and comic surprises at every turn, Nunsense has become an international phenomenon with more than 5000 productions worldwide and translated into 21 languages.

Nunsense marks the second year of Centenary Stage Company Summer Musical Theatre Series. After last season’s successful presentation of HAIR Centenary Stage Company has expanded the Summer Musical Theatre Series to include two musicals, Nunsense running July 11 through July 21 and Jesus Christ Superstar running August 1 through August 11. The Summer Musical Theatre Series is produced by Centenary Stage Company’s NEXTstage Repertory and features early career performers including current students and alumni of Centenary University and local talent. Nunsense is presented by special arrangement with SAMUEL FRENCH, INC.

Performances for Nunsense run July 11 through July 21 with specific performances Thursdays at 7:30 pm, Fridays at 8:00 pm, Saturdays at 8:00 pm and Sundays at 2:00 pm. All performances are held in the Sitnik Theatre of the Lackland Performing Arts Center located on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ. Tickets for Nunsense range from $18.00 to $30.00 and vary by performance date. Tickets for Thursday performances are $25.50 for ALL SEATS with a buy one / get one rush ticket special when purchased in person at the Centenary Stage Company box office beginning at 5:30 pm on the evening of the performance. Thursday Buy One / Get One Rush Ticket Special is not available for advance ticket sales. Friday evening tickets are $25.50 for adults and $18.00 for students and children under 12. Saturday evening tickets are $30.00 for adults and $18.00 for students and children under 12. Sunday afternoon tickets are $25.50 for adults and $18.00 for students and children under 12.

For more information or to purchase tickets visit centenarystageco.org or call the Centenary Stage Company box office at (908) 979 – 0900. The box office is open Monday through Friday from 1:00 – 5:00 pm and two hours prior to every performance. The Centenary Stage Company box office is located in the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University at 715 Grand Ave. Hackettstown, NJ. Centenary Stage Company can also be found across social media platforms; Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Like and follow to receive the latest in Centenary Stage Company news and special offers.

The 2018-2019 season of performing arts events at the Centenary Stage Company is made possible through the generous support of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the NJ State Council on the Arts, the Shubert Foundation, the Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, the Sandra Kupperman Foundation, and CSC corporate sponsors, including Premier Season Sponsor Heath Village Retirement Community, The House of the Good Shepherd, Silver Sponsors Hackettstown Medical Center, Home Instead Senior Care (Washington), Fulton Bank of New Jersey, and Centenary Stage Company members and supporters.

WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT-unique performance with script actor has never read

A Play by Nassim Soleimanpour,

Performed in English and Spanish.

 At each performance of WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT, a solitary actor walks out onto an empty stage and opens a sealed envelope. It contains a script they’ve never read of a play they have never seen.  And now they have to perform it for an audience that is ready for anything.

 “PLAYFUL, ENIGMATIC AND HAUNTING” 

WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT is the international sensation by Nassim Soleimanpour.  Confined to Iran for refusing compulsory military service, the playwright has communicated to the outside world though this message-in-a-bottle play that has been performed at theaters large and small around the globe.  It has been described by The New York Times as a “playful, enigmatic and haunting show.”

Kevin Sebastian and Sandra Toll each take their turn performing the play at The Theater Project; Kevin in English (Friday 6.14) and Sandra in Spanish (Saturday, 6.15).  

Kevin is returning to The Theater Project after successes in New York and around the county. His TV credits include CBS’s “Blue Bloods”, “Murphy Brown”, “Bull”; Amazon’s "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (Season 3) and “Producing Juliet”; Netflix’s "Club de Cuervos" and “Friends from College”; “Saturday Night Live”.

Sandra, a bilingual performer who began her career touring Europe as Sally Bowles in CABARET, returns to The Theater Project to perform the Spanish translation of WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT. Sandra is also an educator with a 20-year career teaching Theatre Arts at Thomas Jefferson Arts Academy in Elizabeth. 

“We hope this performance in Spanish will introduce a new audience to The Theater Project,” says artistic director Mark Spina.

WHITE RABBIT RED RABBIT will run at the Unity Bank Annex, 952 Stuyvesant Ave, Union, NJ, where Theater Project is creating a black box theater in a large open room adjacent to the Bank’s offices. “George Street Playhouse started in abandoned supermarket,” says General Manager Gary Glor. “We think Union is full of possibilities for The Theater Project’s future!”

Tickets are available at the box office or by visiting www.thetheaterproject.org. 20% Discounts are available when purchasing a package of tickets for both RABBIT and EXIT PURSUED BY A BEAR, The Theater Project’s second show. June 21-30.

Princeton Summer Theater Launches “Season of Love”

In an airy rehearsal room on the Princeton University campus, a group of students and recent graduates stare down a baseball diamond they leap, cheer, and curse the umpire—or at least that’s what they’re pretending to do as they conclude the fourth day of rehearsals for William Finn and James Lapine’s Falsettos, the opening production of Princeton Summer Theater’s 2019 Season.

Finn and Lapine’s story of Marvin, a New York yuppie whose recent coming-out has created unforeseen (and hilarious) complications for his tight-knit family, was particularly resonant for PST Artistic Director Daniel Krane (photo above), who also directs the show. When selecting the season, both he and Executive Director Hannah Semmelhack (photo above), a Princeton native, were drawn to its poignant representation of an unconventional family whose personal struggles take place against the backdrop of the rapid social changes of the early 1980s.

           

Falsettos is just the first production in what Krane and Semmelhack have dubbed PST’s “Season of Love,” which includes four productions that will explore the concept in all its many permutations. Ira Levin’s Deathtrap, an American classic, exposes the hideous lengths one artist will go to indulge his love of fame; director Maeli Goren’s gender-bending and eco-conscious new adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream will introduce fresh twists into the time-honored story of misplaced attraction; and Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog digs into the rewards and resentments of brotherly love.

            Named “New Jersey’s Favorite Small Theater” in 2018, Princeton Summer Theater has been providing top-notch productions to Central New Jersey since its founding by three Princeton undergraduates in 1968. Each year it employs over thirty young artists who represent the next generation of American theater luminaries; notable PST alumni include Tony Award-winning actress Bebe Neuwirth (Chicago), Tony award-winning producer Geoff Rich (Avenue Q), and Hollywood veteran William Hootkins (Star Wars, Batman). Committed to its dual goals of training young professionals and achieving theatrical excellence, PST is summer stock with a Princeton pedigree, and utterly unique and unmissable part of every New Jersey summer.

Four-show subscriptions to Princeton Summer Theater are available for $79, and Three-show subscriptions are available for $65. Single tickets are $29.50 general admission or $24.50 for students and matinee performances. Call (732) 997-0205 or visit princetonsummertheater.com to subscribe.   

 Images:

 1 The company of PST 2018's Uncommon Women and Others (directed by Artistic Director Daniel Krane) on the Hamilton Murray Stage

2  Hannah Chomiczewski and the company of Falsettos rehearse a scene

Light Opera of New Jersey to present Ragtime the Musical at SOPAC

Presents

July 19, 20, 26 and 27, 2019 at 8 pm; and July 21 and 28, 2019 at 2 pm   The South Orange Performing Arts Center 1 SOPAC Way, South Orange, NJ 07079   Light Opera of New Jersey continues its 24th Season of operetta and musical theatre with a production of Ragtime the Musical directed by Jeffrey Fiorello with musical direction by Charles Santoro and choreography by Aimee Mitacchione. Tickets at www.sopacnow.org or by calling 973-313-2787.   This sweeping musical portrait of early-twentieth-century America tells the story of three families in the pursuit of the American Dream. Written by the award-winning composer/lyricist team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, noted playwright Terrence McNally, and based on E.L. Doctorow's distinguished novel, Ragtime is the winner of the 1998 Tony Awards for Best Score and Book and Orchestrations. Set in the volatile melting pot of turn-of-the-century New York, three distinctly American tales are woven together - that of a stifled upper-class wife, a determined Jewish immigrant and a daring young Harlem musician - united by their courage, compassion and belief in the promise of the future. Together, they confront history's timeless contradictions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair . . . and what it means to live in America.   BUY TICKETS TODAY!